Web Retailer Inks 85,000-SF Warehouse Lease

(Read more on the industrial market.)

BOSTON-The city’s limited supply of industrial space just got a little tighter following an 85,000-sf warehouse lease to CSN Stores at the Boston Business Park. A furniture and home goods retailer reliant on the Internet for sales, CSN is relocating from the Seaport District, where it occupies just under 15,000 sf.

“This represents gigantic, massive growth for [CSN],” Cushman & Wakefield senior director J.P. Plunkett tells GlobeSt.com. The company has no brick-and-mortar locations, instead encouraging consumers to purchase items online from more than 1,000 suppliers. Facilities such as Boston Business Park are being used to store the products until being shipped, a trend that is helping landlords fill warehouse space throughout the country.

Boston Business Park is owned jointly by the Campanelli Cos. and Commonfund Realty. A former supermarket warehouse facility, the 72-acre complex is being marketed to both corporate and industrial tenants, with Plunkett overseeing the leasing team along with C&W senior director Cathy Minnerly and associate Jason Breyer. Richards Barry Joyce & Partners VP Thomas Ashe was broker for CSN Stores. The tenant had considered various options in the metropolitan area before settling on Boston Business Park, but Ashe says the site fit his client’s needs in several ways, including being an urban location and one providing quick access to Route 128/Interstate 95.

“They wanted to be as close to the city as possible, so it was a real good fit there,” says Ashe. While he declined to discuss specifics of the lease, Ashe described the terms as “attractive” for CSN Stores. “I think everyone was happy with it,” Ashe says. The company is expected to begin moving in as early as this week.

Boston Business Park already has two large tenants on the premises. Polaroid Corp. occupies 95,000 sf, and logistics firm List Distribution is in a 100,000-sf block. C&W has also successfully leased space to several firms needing 10,000 sf to 15,000 sf. “There’s a bustling business community out there right now,” says Plunkett, although that has not curbed efforts to populate the remaining portions. Firms needing between 50,000 sf and 800,000 sf can be accommodated, Plunkett says. “There’s a lot of flexibility,” he says, reporting that prospects are on the rise. Boston Business Park also has build-to-suit opportunities available, adds Plunkett.

Due to ongoing shifts in manufacturing and the value of land, Boston and the inner suburbs represent a fraction of the 62.3 million sf that make up the region’s industrial base, with Jones Lang LaSalle estimating just 1.56 million sf of the supply is in those communities. Even before the CSN lease, there was less than 100,000 sf of available space in that submarket, JLL indicates in its first quarter 2007 survey.